Venus

Multi-nominated actor Peter O'Toole has once again been nominated as a lead actor for his role in Venus. This is the story of Maurice (O'Toole) and Ian (Leslie Phillips), two best friends and fellow actors who have their lives turned around by the arrival of Ian's great-niece, Jessie (Jodie Whittaker). Jessie is a wild-child who aspires to be a model and is sent to help out with her ailing great-uncle Ian. Ian and Jessie clash but Maurice and Jessie hit it off. Maurice gets her a job as a nude model for an art class and takes her to see the famous picture of Venus which shows that the human body is a beautifl thing. He then calls her Venus and Jessie interchangeably. I found it refreshing that an aspiring model would eat as much as she eats in this film. Maurice is enlightened in the film as to how much his wife (played by Vanessa Redgrave) means to him. Jessie never really grows in the film and only starts to act like she cares about Maurice due to her guilt at how she treated him. I liked the friendship between Maurice and Jessie but the sexual scenes were nothing more to me than a dirty old man and a selfish young girl out to use him. The best parts of the movie were the interactions between Maurice and Ian and a third friend Donald (Richard Griffiths). Thumb part way up but distancing itself from the finger used in one of the scenes from the movie.